I've been working in morning radio going on 16 years now. I get up early. 3 am early. I've never been much of a coffee drinker, so I turned elsewhere for my caffeine fix. Diet Soda. I, like so man other people, saw diet soda as an easy way out. I wasn't consuming all the sugar of regular soda! It says zero calories!  But what I didn't realize is that even diet soda has numerous problems, including adding notches to your belt. So after years of diet soda being my crutch, it's time to say good-bye.

There is no health scare in my life. I'm not fighting off the symptoms of diabetes. Not yet anyway. I began to look at just how much diet soda controlled my life. I had at least 2 every morning. And that was a "normal" morning. If I was really tired I'd mix in an energy drink. I had a problem, and it was time to do something about it. So I enlisted my wife to join me on my no pop journey. She doesn't drink nearly as much as I do, but when she does, she doesn't even bother with diet. So this week, we're going soda free. I'm confident we can do it.

We both love drinking water, so we've loaded up on some flavors you can add to your water to give it some taste. I'm going to give coffee a try some mornings when I'm really needing a boost of caffeine. But the real reward will be when we weigh in. I can't wait to see just how much "soda weight" we're carrying around. I'll make sure and update you on my progress later on. In the meantime, if you do happen to run across me in public, be gentle. I'm saying good-bye to a friend.

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